Ninety minutes of rain delay bought Orlando City nothing but a longer wait for a goal that never came.
Chicago Fire FC weathered the stoppage and a lopsided share of the ball to beat the Lions 2-1 on Wednesday night at Inter.Co Stadium, extending a run of results that has the Fire third in the Eastern Conference and Orlando still scrambling for a playoff foothold.
Chicago needed four minutes. Puso Dithejane collected a pass from Dawid Poreba and finished low into the bottom right corner from the center of the box, the goal upheld after a brief VAR check.
Orlando answered with the ball but not the ledger. Tyrese Spicer stretched the Fire down the right, Wilder Cartagena turned in his most convincing shift since returning from injury, and Antoine Griezmann forced consecutive corners near the half-hour. Chicago's back line and a sharp save in the 35th minute kept the margin intact.
The equalizer finally came in the 52nd, Griezmann's corner-kick delivery met by David Brekalo, who headed in from the right side of the six-yard box.
It lasted 17 minutes. Robin Jansson brought star Robert Lewandowski down inside the area in the 69th, and the Poland striker picked himself up to beat the goalkeeper from the spot, right-footed to the bottom left. Chris Brady turned aside everything Orlando sent at him after that — four saves in all, including late looks from substitutes Daryl Dike and Eduard Atuesta.
It was a wet night in Orlando, and the Lions could not turn the game over. They were good enough for long stretches. The goals simply would not come, and Chicago is a strong team that has now won three straight in the series, including last October's wild-card round.
Orlando (6-3-11, 21 points) sits 10th in the East at minus-18 on goal difference. Chicago (11-2-6, 35) stays third.
The Lions get another go Saturday, hosting Real Salt Lake at 7:30 p.m.
